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Doctor Who Review: Series 8 - Episode 5 - Time Heist

NOTE: This Review contains spoilers for Time Heist.

Poster copyright RadioTimes and Stuart Manning.

The Episode

This episode begins with Clara getting ready for a date with Danny. However (because its Doctor Who) things quickly escalate, and within minutes she finds herself sat with the Doctor across a table from two other people, with the order to "break into the bank".

The Review

This was a weird episode, and I still can't quite make my mind up whether I actually like it or not. I love the idea, and I think that its great fun, but I wish it had been done with a less obvious purpose (I can't be the only person who guessed it was the Doctor who was "The Architect" can I?) Granted, I didn't think what was in the vault WAS in the vault, but I did guess it was the Doctor. I also can't make up my mind whether I like the memory worm or not. Of course, we saw it before in The Snowmen ( when The Doctor meets Clara for the second time [Christmas 2012]). It's quite a cool concept, but it seems a little to convenient a way to do things.

I know for a fact that I loved the cinematography though. The Director was the same as for Listen, and I think he did an awesome job in both episodes. I believe he has one more this series as well - which is great!

I think that maybe the episode was approached from the wrong angle. Maybe if the Doctor had known what he was doing, and we had as well, then it would seem a little less strange. I suppose this was something that the writer was trying to tell us when the Doctor says that there must have been a reason that they agreed to help break in, something he obviously wouldn't normally agree to.

For the third episode in a row Missy wasn't mentioned either, which is a little strange, as I would have thought she would have been in it briefly again at some point (maybe when the Director of the bank died - although we didn't see that.)

All in all I think this episode was fun. Definitely not as good as last weeks, but still fun. It also helps us get to know this new Doctor a bit more, and I'm warming to him a lot, I think Peter Capaldi has struck a perfect balance - but more of that in my series review after the final episode has aired.

Good fun, but maybe more thought was needed. On the whole, not a bad episode by any means.